Ministers and martyrs : Malcolm X and Martin Luther King

Abstract:

Loved or despised, black ministers Malcolm X and Martin Luther King made their ways from birth in Baptist parsonages separated by half a continent to significant positions in mid-twentieth century America. Both men were painfully dramatizing black problems and poignantly articulating black-white tensions when their careers were violently concluded in their thirty-ninth years by assassins' bullets-This dissertation is a study of the goals and strategies of these two ministers who became martyrs in the cause of freedom. The writings and speeches of each man served the author as the basic source from which the concepts which guided Malcolm and King were gleaned.Chapter I presents brief, integrated biographies of Malcolm and King as well as their reactions to the ideas of one another. Chapters II and III deal with Malcolm and King, respectively; the format is the same for both chapters. Following a short introduction, goals are reviewed. Then, attention is turned to the strategies by which each leader sought to secure his goals. At the end of each chapter a number of summary ideas which represent the author's personal reaction to the life of the man under review are presented. Chapter IV concludes the dissertation with an essay in which the styles and ideas of the two men are compared andcontrasted.Opinions about Malcolm and King and their roles in American society are as diverse as the number of people who have heeded them. -4To some, these two represent American determination for freedom at its most noble level; others cast them in the role of despicable demogogues. Some were able to accept King's leadership while rejecting Malcolm's. Some, who at first repudiated King, began to accept him when Malcolm's impassioned voice stirred new visions of racial revolution. Others felt that Malcolm was possessed with an urgency that was lacking in the approach of King.The operational principles of King's life were well defined when he became pastor of a Southern church in 1954. Early in his life King had synthesized the Christian message of love and the Ganahh en teaching, of nonviolence; this synthesis was to provide the springboard for his future ideology and program. It should not be assumed, however, that King did not develop new visions nor sense new relationships as he traveled the tortuous road from Montgomery to Memphis. Rather, it was his basic, undergirding position which was unchanged as he moved along that route.On the other hand, any attempt to force Malcolm's strategy into such a unitary mold will result in an inaccurate evaluation of the man. During the last fifty weeks of his life, Malcolm was undergoing significant philosophical changes. Even though he had earnestly preached orthodox Black Muslim doctrine for a dozen years, the split with Elijah Muhammad in early 1964 and especially the transforming Mecca pilgrimage caused his thinking to move in radically new directions. Many of his positions were not yet fully defined nor articulated at the time of his death.Malcolm and King presented American blacks with alternative means to secure the same goals. Both dramatically expressed feelings that were shared, some perhaps unconsciously, by most blacks. Their fearless articulation of the black plight attests to their personal integrity and their unflinching determination to build a more just world. By defining problems in a simple, naked manner a nation was briefly aroused from its apathy to deal creatively with its racial crisis. Perhaps, even now, the message Malcolm and King espoused has been too quickly forgotten.